1215 Hosea L. Williams Drive looks like any other house on the street at 8:54 P.M. However, this building hosts The Third Place House, a DIY comedy space.
The Third Place House’s screen door had warm light and voices pouring out onto the yard. People standing in the yard called out to the passersby, “What are you looking for?” even accidentally flagging down a DoorDash delivery driver.
The host, Chandler, welcomes in the steady stream of people at the entrance. People hold questionable QT cups and other gas station goodies while people congregate and wait.
From the beginning, the audience is enthusiastic. The crowd cheers as Chandler officially calls the comedy into a session with, “The comedy is now, and libraries are the future!”
With his very own speaker, Ian Aber opens with a joke about freebasing cocaine that ages him more than his gray hairs ever could.
Ian somehow manages to make growing up gay in South Carolina, suicide attempts and therapy from an 18-year-old Georgia State Psychology student who is lighthearted and hilarious.
However, the funniest part about his set was his thoughts on the Biblical Rapture.
Although a confessed nonbeliever, he had the energy of a Southern Baptist preacher as he explained that straight people were going to bring about the end of times, and hoped he would get beamed up, but only once he reached his “rapture weight.”
Following Ian, Mom and Dad were the crowd favorite. Hannah Rae, who plays the Dad, and Ana Bernot-Reily, who plays the Mom, make up the duo.
Like most improv, it falls under the ‘You Had To Be There’ category. However, it managed to carry on religious undertones through a scene where a Parisian Catholic father promised he “will personally make sure [Dad] will go to hell.”
After their whirlwind of a performance, the crowd was given a needed intermission and poured out into the yard. At the ringing of bells, the club summoned the public back in.
Schuler Drose is the host of TIMEOUT!, a self-described knock-off of Whose Line Is It Anyway with a rotating cast. Michael Wurst, Scout Smith, Chandler Pennington and Brett Schultz fought for laughs, but there was no official winner.
Most notable of the performance was that not once but twice, the group had raunchy scenes where tongues went down throats which elicited a mixed cry of horror and excitement in the audience.
Balloon Animals, the closing act, is an improv group starring Brett Schiltz, Morgan Bowling, Lucas Pollizer and Jackson Copeland. Like Mom and Dad’s set, explaining the improvised scenes defeats the purpose.
Although, it is worth noting that Balloon Animals, possibly for the first time in history, made Kidz Bop a threat.
The show ended, and the audience got at least a week’s worth of laughs in.
Some notable quotes of the night are: “It’s a lunch box!”, “You’re exceptionally pretty for a 7-year-old girl”, “You’re glistening! My eyes!” and “Sex is like Wisconsin: no one knows what goes on there.”.
Beyond comedy, this space is powerful because it goes beyond the corporatization of humor seen at other comedy spaces.
Comedians at the show appreciate the chance to be more unrestrained without the pressure from spaces that are worried about their bottom line.
Several also mentioned their appreciation of a space that is intimate and filled with familiar faces. At the same time,the audience appreciated the lack of show fees and two drink minimums standard at other venues.
Additionally, The Third Place is working to be more than a venue through its open-door policy that allows creatives to come workshop or find community.
If interested, the Third Place and the performers can be found at the following: @thethirdplacehouse, @abearcomedian, @momanddadimprov, @schuylerdrose, and @balloonanimals_improv.
